How trouble at midnight grew into political storm

NEW DELHI: An unprecedented crisis gripped the

AAP government in Delhi

on Tuesday with chief secretary Anshu Prakash alleging that he was assaulted by party MLAs at the chief minister’s residence around midnight on Monday.

He claimed that he received blows on his head and temple in the presence of both the CM and deputy CM.

Denying the allegation, AAP said the CS was acting at the behest of the BJP to destabilise the government.

Acting on Prakash’s complaint, Delhi Police filed an FIR invoking stringent sections of criminal conspiracy, wrongful confinement, attacking and obstructing a public servant and common intent. The FIR is against Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan and “others”.

While the CS claimed the meeting had been called to discuss the delay in the AAP government’s publicity campaign, the party and government said it had been summoned to take up the issue of problems in ration distribution due to delay in Aadhaar authentication. They alleged that the CS refused to take questions from the MLAs on rations, saying he was accountable only to the LG, and used foul language.

The bureaucracy has rallied behind the CS. The officers’ associations have decided that they will maintain only written channels of communication with the political executive till the CM apologises for the alleged incident and acts against those responsible. This means the officers will be boycotting meetings involving interactions in person.

Earlier in the day, IAS, DANICS and DASS associations met lieutenantgovernor Anil Baijal and Union home minister Rajnath Singh demanding action against the assaulters. In a statement, they described the assault as one that showed a “functional crisis and breakdown of governance”. Over 200 officers gathered at Rajghat on Tuesday to hold a silent candlelight march in protest.

Both BJP and Congress have slammed AAP and Kejriwal. “The assault on the chief secretary is a repeat of the assault on us when we went to meet the CM on January 30,” said Tiwari, observing that it only showed the “anarchic behaviour” of the party. Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken said the “CM wants to prepare a narrative to hide AAP’s three years of failure by stating that it wants to work but the administrative officers in Delhi are creating hurdles.”

The trouble that allegedly started at midnight grew into a political storm by Tuesday morning. A sudden law and order situation emerged at the Delhi secretariat where minister Imran Hussain and

Delhi Dialogue Commission

vice chairman Ashish Khetan alleged they were attacked by officials. Video clips in which people are allegedly prodding others to attack the two were released. At the end of the day, the police had registered another FIR based on the complaint of Hussain.

The officers are quite incensed over the alleged attack on the CS “in the presence and with the consent of the CM and deputy CM.” Their associations have said that “the appalling and shocking physical assault meted out to the head of the administration of Delhi in the form of blows on the head, amounting to threat to life and physical safety, is deplorable.” They pointed out that “this incident is a culmination of a series of incidents of officers being subjected to verbal abuse and intimidation by political authorities from time to time”, describing the latest incident as the last straw.

“This incident, which happened inside the official residence of the CM, clearly appears to be pre-planned, premeditated and absolutely without any provocation on the part of the CS, in view of the fact that the meeting was called at midnight and the CS was called alone in the presence of a large number of MLAs,” the association said. It is alleged that the meeting was called “to pressure the CS to release publicity material regarding achievements of the government, in violation of the Supreme Court guidelines. Therefore, the meeting was absolutely devoid of any emergency or public interest.”

AAP said that the MLAs accused of assaulting the CS were in fact trying to persuade him with folded hands to return to the meeting which he had left midway. The party, however, accepted that there were very heated arguments between the MLAs and the CS at the meeting.

AAP functionaries claimed the controversy was being fanned to destabilise the government and derail its work. Senior AAP functionary Atishi Marlena said: “The entire discussion was on how a large number of families were not getting ration. Now he is making ludicrous allegations. Obviously, he is doing it at the BJP’s behest. The BJP has stooped very low in disrupting governance in Delhi through the LG and officers.” Another AAP functionary, Ashish Khetan, added: “There are allegations and counter allegations. An independent inquiry should be carried out.”

MLA Amanatullah Khan, who has been named in the FIR and is accused of hitting the CS, has also denied the allegations. Party MLAs Prakash Jarwal (Deoli) and Ajay Dutt (Ambedkar Nagar) claimed the CS used “derogatory casteist remarks” against them.